


By Her Side 2: The Awakening

by Vickiemoseley



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen, Hurt Fox Mulder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-08-03 18:08:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16331009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vickiemoseley/pseuds/Vickiemoseley
Summary: Continuation of By Her Side. Bill takes up watch over





	By Her Side 2: The Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Susan and Kathy for beta these two. And

Title: By Her Side 2: The Awakening  
Summary: Continuation of By Her Side. Bill takes up watch over  
an injured Mulder and tries to reconcile some old feelings.  
Category: V, A, Muldertorture  
Rating: PG-13 (crisis is over, civility resumes)  
Disclaimer: No infringement intended, but I had a great time. I put  
everybody back where I found them, too.  
Archive: Yes  
Author notes: Thanks to Susan and Kathy for beta these two. And  
thanks to all of you who have written me during this election. I  
love you all :)  
ALL US CITIZENS OF VOTING AGE: Don't forget to VOTE  
on Nov. 3. YES it does make a difference.

By Her Side 2: The Awakening

I've been in this elevator so much in these last three days that I  
know the grooves on the buttons and the graffiti scratched in the  
paint by heart.

It's been hell, no doubt about it. But I'm not complaining. I get up  
in the morning, go to work at the base all day, then drive straight to  
the hospital. I take up watch, Dana runs back to our house to grab  
a bite with Tara, play with Matty, take a shower and lay down, if  
Tara can bully her into it. And then by 11 she's back here, looking  
a little better than when she left. I give her a kiss and I'm off to  
find my way home again.

While Dana's joining the living, I sit here communing with the  
comatose. Mulder and I have had a lot to talk about. So far, it's  
been the kind of conversation I've always wanted to have with Fox  
Mulder - one sided and me doing all the talking. Just what my  
heart needed.

But I've been good. Well, maybe not 'good' but at least I haven't  
called him a 'sorry son of a bitch' in the last three days. I've done  
my best to give him a piece of my mind for worrying Dana like he  
is. The docs all said he would wake up as the blood volume was  
improved. That was two days ago. Then they said it was the pain  
factor. They've had him on some really good shit, from what the  
nurses tell me. So that shouldn't be a problem now. To tell the  
truth, I don't think they know their asses from a hole in the ground,  
but there's no way I'm saying that while Dana is around. I say it  
plenty to my bud, Mulder.

The doctors are hopeful. Sure they are. We avoided a lot of  
complications, apparently. He hasn't developed an infection or  
pneumonia. The respirator has been turned down a couple of times  
and I wouldn't be surprised if they've removed it by now. He's  
breathing on his own.

But he 'died' twice. His heart stopped pumping. I didn't go to  
medical school, but I know that when the heart stops pumping, the  
blood stops carrying oxygen to the cells in the body. Skin cells,  
bone cells, . . . brain cells. And he'd lost so much blood by the time  
they got to him, that sort of starved the cells a little, too.

No body's saying it out loud, but I know why they're all tiptoeing  
around Dana. The fact that he's in a coma right now is as good as  
shouting from the rooftops. Brain damage. There is a chance he  
might never wake up and it's getting stronger every day.

Dana told me the other night that she wanted me to get to know  
him better. Well, I'm getting to know Mulder more than I bet  
either of us ever wanted. Like his current 'best' blood pressure is  
115 over 90. And his heart rate stays at a steady 61 beats a minute,  
which, with the right tone on the machine, is just perfect to drive a  
person stark raving crazy, when listened to for four solid hours.  
His 'resps', in nurses short hand, seem to be holding at 12 a minute,  
which is pretty much where they were when the tube was doing the  
work for him. I could go into his 'output' volume, but there are  
some things even _guys_ don't discuss in public. Catch me in the  
locker room sometime, why don't ya.

He's a pretty quiet guy in a coma. He doesn't move, he doesn't  
skip a breath, he doesn't even sigh. He leaves that up to Dana.  
Sometimes, like tonight, I get up here and just stand in the doorway  
a minute, watching her watching him. Six breaths, then a sigh.  
Light caress down the left hand, around the IV needle. Another  
sigh. If the light is right I can see the tear tracks running along her  
right cheekbone.

"Hey, sunshine." I have to break the morbid feeling in this room,  
it's bad enough with the silence.

She looks up and for a moment, the old Danie, my baby sister, is  
smiling up at me. "Hey, Billy? How was your day?"

"Boring. I need a ship," I answer back, tossing my jacket over the  
tray table.

Another sigh.

"How's the man here?"

Silence. She's cataloging. Trying to decide what would be  
significant enough to tell me. Knowing that I probably won't  
understand all the medicalese and really don't care for in depth  
explanations. "A little better. They extubated him this afternoon.  
I'm glad, that way he won't wake up fighting the tube. And I think  
he's getting some color back."

Sure, sis. Whatever keeps you going. "Yeah, I think I see that too.  
Not that I'm that much of an expert on the 'before' model." I'm  
trying to agree, really I am. And I am glad about that damned  
respirator tube. It was giving _me_ a sore throat just thinking  
about it. "Hey, Tara put a lasagna in the oven. You get first dibs,  
but there better be some left when I get home or I'm coming after  
you tomorrow."

She gets up, but not without a quick kiss to the silent man's  
forehead. "There'll be plenty. Unless Matty goes through it like he  
did the tuna casserole last night. That child is going to eat you out  
of house and home, Billy."

Thank you, God. She's taking an interest in something outside of  
these four walls! It makes me giddy. I chuckle. "Then I _really_  
need a boat."

"Or get yourself a farm." She's smiling again, but not at me. She  
leans over and whispers something in his ear. I can't hear and right  
now, I don't know that I want to. I can tell it's just between the  
two of them. I just hope he's going to listen to her.

Another quick kiss to his temple and then she's standing and  
reaches up to give me a quick peck on the cheek. "I appreciate this  
a lot, you know. But make sure you call me as soon as there's any  
change. I mean, if he wakes up while you're here . . ."

She's trying to be diplomatic, but I catch on. "He'll think he's gone  
straight to hell, right?"

She gives me a smirk, straight out of her teen age years.  
"Something like that, yeah."

"I could sit here in a red cape and horns. See what reaction that  
might get me," I fire back. It's fun to joke with her again like this.  
It's been too long.

"No, please, he's had too many cardiac episodes already," she grins  
back. "I'll be back at 9."

"You'll be back at 11, and no arguments. Us 'guys' have things to  
talk about."

She's reluctant to leave, like always. I know she's afraid that he'll  
wake up when she's not here. But she more afraid that she'll go  
and come back and he'll still not be awake. A rock and a hard  
place. I wish I could do more.

I wait until her footsteps are receding down the hall before I sit  
down. This is her chair. It's where she's slept the last three nights,  
it's where she eats all of her meals save the one Tara can force  
down her, it's where she _exists_ for the 20 hours a day that she's  
by his side.

I would really like to punch his lights out for doing this to her.

Oh, I know. It's not his fault. Intellectually, I know that.  
Emotionally, I just see the hell he's putting her through. But then,  
when it's just the two of us, I can see the hell he's going through  
and I feel like a number one asshole.

"Hey, Mulder. It's me. Bill. Tara says 'Hi'. Boy, I tell you, I  
heard a good one today."

I ramble. I know he's not really listening, so I tell him the latest  
jokes from the commissary, what the top brass are doing to screw  
the rest of us, the latest on the pennant races. Oh, and where we  
are in the home run derby. During our first night here, Dana told me  
he was a sports fan, has been watching the McGwire/Sosa race, has  
been rooting for Sosa even though he's a Red Sox fan. Guess she  
knows as much about him as Tara knows about me.

I've been thinking about that, too. I've had time to think of it  
plenty. During the day, sometimes it's all I can think about. I  
always knew my baby sister would find somebody someday. I  
never cared for the creeps she dated in high school. They were all  
too immature for her, anyway. And in medical school, boy, for a  
while there, I was scared she might be 'swinging the other way.'  
She _never_ dated. At least, not that any of us knew of. Then she  
ran off to the FBI. She wasn't even out of the Academy when she  
moved in with that Willis jerk. I met him once, hated him on sight.

She got rid of him, finally. Took up with that lobbyist, Minette, for  
a while. That almost looked serious. And he was an OK guy. Had  
a good job, treated her like a queen. And she dropped him like a  
rock the day she got paired with her 'new' partner.

Minette called me one night. We'd gone out for beers a couple of  
times, not like we were best buds, but we talked about Dana and  
what she needed in her life. Anyway, he calls and wanted to go  
out, grab some beers. I hadn't heard about the break up, and he  
didn't volunteer the information on the phone, so I said yes.

He wasn't there to beg for my intervention. He asked me out to  
warn me. Seems he had some friends in the State Department and  
then knew all about Fox Mulder, FBI. He was a nut case, according  
to Minette. Couldn't work with a partner, they all ended up getting  
transferred or . . . something. Slept his way through the clerical  
staff pretty quickly. And then, he went off the deep end.

Well, I learned early on that the best way to get a black eye in my  
family was to try and tell my sisters who they should and shouldn't  
date. So if Dana broke up with Minette, well, that was her  
business. But this Mulder character . . .

But, as I said before, I didn't go into this thing hating him.

Now, I've seen them together. Oh, this isn't the first time. He  
came charging out like a knight on a crusade when she found that  
kid. Emily. Her name was Emily. Gotta remember that. Anyway,  
out of nowhere, he's on our doorstep. Tara, big hearted, very  
pregnant Tara, makes up the couch for him. Like a member of the  
family. Pissed me off royally, but when your wife is two weeks  
overdue, you don't pick fights.

I was a little too mad to give them much consideration at the time.  
I remember bits and pieces. Seeing them on the couch, watching  
the Christmas tree. His arm around her shoulders, and I'm pretty  
sure she was crying, but probably not. And at the funeral. I knew  
he wanted to stay right by her side, but he left her, went to 'get the  
car' he said. At the time I thought he was being a jerk, but now  
that I've had the luxury of time to pick that moment apart, I can see  
that he was giving her a gift. He was giving her space to grieve.

Pretty sensitive thing to do for a guy who's a consummate asshole.

Speaking of which, I guess I've redeemed myself after that scene  
with Dana the other night. Mom called me at work today. She said  
Dana's been calling every day with updates, but she wanted to  
thank me personally. Dana told her that I was really helping, that  
both of us, Tara and I were Godsends right now.

A Godsend? A little dramatic for my no nonsense little sister, but  
hey, I'm not complaining. It's one of the nicer things she's ever  
called me. Maybe the nicest.

I admit it, I was a jerk as a kid. But then, who wants a little sister  
tagging along all the time. Missy used to for a while, then we made  
her cry one time and she decided she didn't want anything to do  
with us. But not Dana. We'd make Dana cry and she run under  
the porch or behind the garage and cry it out, then come right back  
for more. And after a while, she stopped crying. No matter what  
we did. That's why I was so scared the other night when she cried  
in front of me. I hadn't seen her do that since she was 7 or 8. But  
to this day, it wasn't me who made her cry the other night.

Mulder made her cry, Mom. Mulder made Dana cry.

This circular logic is starting to get me dizzy. One minute, I'm  
thinking he ain't such a bad guy and the next minute I want strangle  
the asshole myself!

If he'd just wake up, I think it would be all right. But until he does,  
I'm here for the evening. Even brought some work to catch up on.

Paperwork. You get some stripes on your sleeve and suddenly,  
they drown you in paperwork. I once thought learning to tie and  
untie knots was just as waste of time. We're the Nuclear Navy! If  
it doesn't have a computer chip somewhere in it, we _don't_ use it!  
But now I know what they were preparing us for. We were  
learning to untangle paperwork.

I've been sitting here, trying to catch up on this shit while Sleepy,  
the sixth dwarf, takes up space on that hospital bed. Somehow, I  
get the feeling that he's hiding under all those machines. Dana says  
they have paperwork, out the yahay, it would seem. And he's  
always ducking out of it, making her do it. OK, I can't really fault  
the guy for that. Women are better suited for sitting in front piles  
of forms and computer screens. It's their center of gravity, the  
reason they can pick up chairs from a bent over position and we  
can't.

Or something like that.

I glance over at Mulder from my little 'tower' of bureaucracy and  
stop.

He moved.

Nah, it has to be my imagination. The guy has been laying in  
whatever position the nurses put him in and I've gotten lazy. I  
didn't notice the nurse come in and move him. That's all. It would  
be great, but it's not time to call out the troops . . .

Shit! Damn! He moved again!

No, I swear to God, he moved this time. I was looking right at him  
and he sort of turned his head and I know I saw him swallow. Plus,  
his face looks animated, not still. Not dead, like it did look.

I hit the nurse's button, and a voice come over the intercom. "Yes,  
Mr. Scully. Can I help you?"

It's Patsy. I really like her, she's very gentle. Tammy is younger  
and tends to be more rough with him. It amazes me that stuff like  
that is bothering me, considering who we're dealing with here. But  
I brush all that aside. "Mulder's . . . ah, geez . . . he moved! Get  
the doctor, I'll call Dana, he moved! He's waking up!"

Boy, that was a real 'command' voice there. My voice hasn't  
cracked like that since high school. But I look down and shit, I'm  
looking at eyes looking back at me.

And he moans.

It sounds almost like a word. I lean forward a little and listen  
harder.

He says it again.

"Hell?"

I can't help it. I burst out laughing. Just like Dana thought, he  
thinks he's died and gone to hell when he sees me in the room with  
him. When I finally get hold of myself, I can see that he's still  
giving me this look, like he's waiting to be told if this is eternity or  
not. I can't do it to the guy. I have to fess up.

"No, Mulder, but I bet this could be a new definition of hell for  
you, huh? You're in the hospital. Mission Hospital in San Diego."

He swallows and looks relieved. Then he jerks his head to look  
around the room. "Scully?"

At first I assume he's asking me a question. "What?"

He clears his throat. All sounds are coming out a whisper and I can  
tell it's hurting him a lot to talk. "Dana?"

There's fear in his eyes. Then it dawns on me. Doh! He doesn't  
know that she's all right. He's wondering where she is. He doesn't  
know that he took the bullet and kept her safe.

"She's all right, Mulder. She's fine. She's at home with Tara and  
Matty. I'm going to call her now. She'll be here in ten, twenty  
minutes, tops. If you're good, she might even sneak you up some  
of Tara's lasagna."

He relaxes back into the pillows, tries to swallow again, and  
grimaces.

"No . . . tomatoes. Not . . . right now."

The door flies open and Patsy comes in with Dr. Nelson quick on  
her heels. I met Nelson two nights ago, when he stopped by for  
late rounds. He did the surgery on Mulder and has been keeping  
tabs on him since then. A nice guy, a bit young, but he's doing a  
good job.

"Hi, Bill, isn't? Now, what have we here? Well, well, well, hello  
Agent Mulder. Welcome back to the land of the living!"

Mulder gives the guy a look that I can well relate to. He'd love to  
jam his fist down the asshole's throat at this moment. That much  
perky, nobody needs when they just woke up thinking they're in  
hell, and their throat feels like some body used a sand blaster on it.  
The rest of him probably hurts, too, but the throat seems to be  
getting the best of him.

"His throat seems to be hurting him a lot. Is there something you  
can do for that?"

Three pairs of eyes turn to me, and one pair of hazel eyes looks  
totally amazed. Nelson nods to Patsy, Patsy goes out the door and  
Mulder is still looking at me like I've grown a second head. Which  
would probably be easier for him to believe than that I've just done  
something nice for him.

It embarrasses the hell out of me and I grab for the phone. "I  
almost forgot to call Danie. She's gonna kill me for waiting this  
long."

The phone rings three times before Tara picks up. "Hello?"

"Baby cakes, get Danie, quick. There's somebody here who wants  
to hear from her." I didn't think I could get breathless just standing  
and talking on the phone.

"Oh, God! Oh, please! Billy, is he awake? Ohmigod, I'll get  
Dana. She's up giving Matty a bath." I hear a muffled scream for  
Dana. Thank God, Tara put her hand to the receiver. Her voice  
gets kinda shrill sometimes. Not that I mind it, most of the time.  
Sometimes I have to work for that scream. But over the phone,  
well, it would have deafened me.

Tromping down the steps, I can hear every footfall.

"Bill! What is it?"

"He's awake, Danie. He's awake and he sure seems OK to me.  
Nelson's here, but Mulder wanted to make sure you're all right.  
Hang on, I'll put him on."

I hold the phone over to his ear and Mulder's eyes get really bright  
and a smile replaces all the pain lines I've seen on his face.  
"Scully?"

I can't really hear what she's saying, but I take it that it's all good  
stuff from the look on his face. He nods once or twice. Then he  
closes his eyes. He looks wiped out. Nelson touches my hand and  
I take the receiver back.

"Danie, I think we just wore him out. He's asleep again. Why  
don't you take your time, don't kill yourself getting here. Here,  
talk to the Doc for a minute." I hand phone to Nelson.

"Dr. Scully? Yes, I just examined him. Neuros look great,  
considering the pain factor."

I would have listened in better, but Patsy came back with a good  
sized needle and I was watching her real close until she stuck it in  
the IV instead of his backside. I mean, the guy just got to sleep, for  
Pete's sakes. Patsy looks up at me and winks.

"Dr. Scully was right. He does have 'to die for eyes'."

"I never really noticed." Well, it's the truth. I never noticed that  
she seemed to think like that, either. Nelson hands the phone back  
to me.

"Billy, I'm going to change real quick and be right back up there.  
He should sleep for a while, they just gave him a dose of Demerol.  
But I can take it from here."

"Did you get a chance to sleep? Danie, you don't need to rush  
back, he's not going anywhere. Stay there, rest up. I'll watch  
him."

There was a long silence on the phone. "Well, he is more of a  
handful when he's awake," she admits with a chuckle. "OK, here's  
the deal. I'll lay down for a few minutes on the couch, but I doubt  
I'll be able to sleep. Then I'll come up. You need some time with  
Tara, you know. We can't go neglecting the ones we love."

I smile at that. "No, you're absolutely right, Danie. We can't go  
on doing that. I'll see you in a few hours, then?"

"Yeah, about nine or so. And Bill, thank you. You don't know  
how much this has meant to me."

"Hey, what are big brothers for?" I hang up on her goodbye. I  
don't really trust my voice at this moment.

I look over at the guy in the bed. He's just sleeping now. I can tell  
because I see his eyes shift under his lids. His face looks more  
alive, too, even though the medicine seems to be keeping the pain  
at bay.

He's a sorry son of a bitch, that's still true. But if he can give me  
my little sister back, can he really be all that bad?

the end.

Next up: Mulder gets released from the hospital and he and Bill  
finally get to have 'that talk'.

Vickie

vickiemoseley1978@yahoo.com

"Politics is a character flaw."

George Brown, politician and former mayor.


End file.
